November 5Ć5 Night at Start Garden
Voting Closes:
November 18, 2024 11:59 pm
Impact
People with disabilities often live in poverty because they cannot find paid employment that offers enough support to help them succeed. By employing a job coach, LEK can hire people with disabilities to work in a nonsegregated (and pretty cool, if we do say so ourselves) community setting on our historical Harbor Trolley converted into a beautiful food truck. Working provides dignity and community, and helps people to have disposable income that they will spend right here in our community, on things like recreation, clothing, personal services, and rent, so the dollars stay local. And having people of all abilities working together creates an atmosphere of belonging and pride that cannot be found when we keep people separate.
What I'll do with $5,000
LEK will use the $5000 to pay the wages of a dedicated job coach to come alongside employees with disabilities this summer food truck season, preparing and serving food on the trolley in and around the West Michigan lakeshore community. The coach will begin by teaching the skills and expectations involved in the food preparation, cash handling and customer service, the fade their presence to whatever level allows the maximum success for the employees. Once the summer season is completed, we hope to be able to either keep the mentor and employees on our payroll or give them a great reference to move on to their next work adventure.